My husband emailed me this video to watch in honour of family day. It features Team Hoyt. Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father/son team, a partnership that began when the son asked his father, “Dad will you run a marathon with me?” Despite suffering from heart disease, his Dad agreed. See the footage below to follow their running of the Iron Man triathlon. Goes to show you don’t have to be an Olympian to possess Olympic spirit!

As a side note, the music that accompanies this footage, “My Redeemer Lives”, is a popular song for funerals, but equally appropriate for Team Hoyt’s story and for me. My Nana sang with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in her youth. She earned a gold medal, for her solo performance of Handel’s “My Redeemer Liveth”. My Nana died from Altzheimer’s Disease. In her last days, she was extremely agitated and confused. My mom in an attempt to draw out a lucid moment, asked her about earning the gold medal for her solo performance. Without hesitation, she told Mom that her award winning piece was “My Redeemer Liveth”.

Big R redeemers live among us … The Hoyts and Canadian gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau are examples. But I think that all of us have redeemer potential. Small acts of kindness, like holding the hand of your dying Mom while helping her remember a time when she was young and golden, rank right up there.